I really do love a map project. It’s such a great way to get to know a place. Of course it’s a different approach to walking through with a camera and just seeing what catches the eye, which is often what I’ll do on a visit or explorer day! I was delighted to be asked to create this Temple Bar culture map for Discover Temple Bar. The area is well known for its traditional pubs and draws visitors all year round, but it’s also a busy cultural hub for the City. There are a host of arts venues and heritage sites which we hoped to capture in this hand drawn map. The project required something detailed that could potentially be printed and circulated by hand, but also clear and striking with a flash of colour to fit nicely to those all important online guides and social media posts.
The client provided a list of priorities for the map to focus on. As usual I was drawn to the more historical architecture of the Cathedral and City Hall, as well as the Ha’penny Bridge. That last one felt important as a marker for orientating any tourists! It was definitely helpful that Nicky and I visited Dublin in Spring 2024… (no doubt we missed plenty of these highlights in our whistle stop tour). I completed the street names by hand; rather than a digital font. But paired back the road and city block definitions to clean, simple shapes. I like the overall effect and I think the green is lively, offsetting the intricate line work of the highlighted illustrations.
The map was delivered in a digital format for printing locally. But we also worked hard on creating an editable format that could be updated easily for any special events or a seasonal focus. The numbers and key can all be moved and adapted for future versions.
If you’re heading to Dublin anytime soon I’d highly recommend the Discover Temple Bar site and Instagram feed (embedded below). There’s some very nice street by street guides and on the ground insights to what’s going on at the heart of the City. Hopefully we’ll see a few copies of the Temple Bar Culture Map out in the wild soon!
That leaves me with a final big thank you to Matthew for commissioning this! It was genuinely one of my favourite projects from last year and I suspect it wont be long before we’re back in Ireland for another explore.
If you’d like to work with me on a similar project, please get in touch. Or you can follow updates on my latest artworks, here on the studio blog and social media: https://linktr.ee/illustrationbyjonathan
